it's a hawk with night vision goggles. it's marching to the beat of a different drum. and where beauty meets brains. it's big ideas with smaller footprints. and knowing there's always more in the world to see. it's the all-new lincoln mkz. we all work remotely so this is a big deal, our first full team gathering! i wanted to call on a few people. ashley, ashley marshall... here. since we're often all on the move, ashley suggested we use fedex office to hold packages for us. great job. [ applause ] thank you. and on a protocol note, i'd like to talk to tim hill about his tendency to use all caps in emails. [ shouting ] oh i'm sorry guys. ah sometimes the caps lock gets stuck on my keyboard. hey do you wanna get a drink later? [ male announcer ] hold packages at any fedex office location. i'm here to pick up some cacti. it should be under stephens.

the verizon share everything plan for small business. get a shareable pool of data... got enough joshua trees? ... on up to 25 devices. so you can spend less time... yea, the golden barrels... managing wireless costs and technology and more time driving your business potential. looks like we're going to need to order more agaves... ah! oh! ow! ... and more bandages. that's powerful. sharble data plus unlimited talk and text. now save $50 on a droid razr maxx hd by motorola. >> gretchen: tomorrow, a story about the entrepreneurial spirit a man breaking new ground every day, don peels, part of our series celebrating black history month. >> steve: all right. we're going to continue the conversation with the host of "meat eater," steve, and find out how you can save big money on your grocery bill. >> brian: see you tomorrow. bill: let's kick it off. fox news alert. breaking news out of london. three young british muslims

convicted of plotting terrorist bomb attacks, prosecutors allege were intended to do more damage than the bus bombings of 2005. british prosecutors say the men were fired up from sermons from anwar al-awlaki, killed in september of 2011. more on as we get the breaking developments. there has been a stunning twist in the oscar pistorius murder case, the lead detective, the lead detective facing seven counts of attempted murder. that's a bombshell raising questions about the prosecution's case ends if the man we know as "the blade runner". good morning. those are developing headlines as we start a new morning here. i'm bill hemmer and welcome to "america's newsroom.". martha: good morning. i'm martha maccallum. these prosecutors in this case are calling this development totally weird. they want lead detective, hilton botha, the key witness to the crime scene, can you believe this?

to step down from this case. what does it mean? bill: greg palkot live in pretoria, south africa. you were in the courtroom and even had a chance to speak to that detective, greg. >> reporter: absolutely. hi, bill, martha. we were in the courtroom for day three of the bail hearing for oscar pistorius. yeah, we were right next to the detective you were talking about. he was taking the stand again today. we asked him about his performance yesterday. all that contradictory testimony in a very large understatement. he described it as so-so. we asked him about these attempted murder charges. he and other police officers were allegedly accused of shooting at a van during a criminal investigation back in 2011. he told me thought the charges were dropped. still this has got to further damage the government's case against pistorius and we could soon hear about a new lead detective in the case, guys. bill: greg, you also had a clear view of pistorius

today in court. how does he or how does he appear to be holding up? >> reporter: it was a packed courtroom, bill, but we did have a clear view. we were facing him. he is a grim-faced but frankly we didn't see his face. almost the entire day, entire hearing his head was down. at one point he was crying openly. he was wiping away tears. his head was shaking. he was nodding, really uncontrollably. and behind him, his family, brother and other family members offering some support. most of the day, bill, was taken up with the defense for pistorius. summing up their arguments. my impression of them they are very slick, very well-organized. their line? no premeditated murder. no murder. pistorius thought it was an intruder, not his girlfriend reeva steenkamp who he shot at. one telling line from the lawyer who said, hey, if he wanted to kill her he didn't

have to wait until the bathroom. one final note, probably most stunning conversation i had in the courtroom was with a long-time trainer for miss for just -- pistorius. for years. talks to him all the time. even knew his girlfriend as well. a faw days before the incident and pistorius put himself aside, described her, she's a keeper. stunning stuff. bill: thank you, greg. as new developments coming out of there. greg palkot working that story in south africa. martha. martha: news from nike they're dropping the so-called "blade runner" as their pitchman. a nike ad features pistorius saying of all things, i am the bullet from the chamber. no mystery they would want to pull that ad. that day they found out his girlfriend was shot in his home, they did that right

away. they have no plans to use the sports star in future campaigns. they're suspending their shoe endorsement deal with them. saying in a statement he entitled to due process so leaving the door open in the future. bill: meantime there are winter storm warnings and advisories that will affect millions of americans from colorado through illinois. that dangerous storm system, it's a big one, expected to dump up to a foot of snow in some areas on the southern edge, it could produce damaging wind and large hail and tornados. all this making for extremely dangerous driving conditions in states like kansas. also in oklahoma. crews are out in force trying to keep roads clear there. unfortunately we're hearing one person has died in a car crash already there as we watch that storm. martha: a rare scene in southern arizona. look at this time-lapse video. the snow first caused first round play in a golf tournament to be canceled. you do not see that very often in that part of our country.

the temperature went down to 33 degrees in the cactus-lined course. one top-ranked golfer said he had never seen anything like this on the tour. that looks like a football game in new england and it is a golf game in phoenix. you see the golf ball surrounded by snow. they will reschedule for today. there was no frost delay this morning. that is remarkable, isn't it? bill: they go to hawaii, goto california, to florida for a reason. martha: we knew there was a reason they make sweaters in the ski store. they pull them out for this. bill: we'll see if they get better weather. a more context what is happening this arizona, the last time there was know in nearby tucson was december 2011. the kids have not had a snow day since february of 2009. the record one day snowfall, 6.8 inches. that was set back in 1971. we told you it was a big storm. it's happening. martha: here's a stark look what is really happening

right now in our economy. what better indicator than to look at wal-mart sales because they're now reportedly putting out their quarterly sales about a billion dollars short of what they expected. fox business network stuart varney joins me on that. as wal-mart goes, so is going the nation perhaps, stuart? >> oh, yes. this isn't just one single company, one single retailer. this is america's economy. very good indicator of that and the news is not good. as you suggested there, martha, their sales are flat to down in the same stores over a comparable period. they took in about a billion dollars less than they were expecting to take in. you got to bear in end into the gas prices have gone straight up. that leaves less money available to go spend at wal-mart. taxes for everybody went up on january the 1st. same story. less money for people to spend at wal-mart. this is a disappointing indicator for the overall economy. it confirms we're still pretty weak. martha: you get that divide. you see what is going on

with the ground on retail sales like you're reporting right here and you look at the stock market. that seems to indicate that things are picking up. why that divide continuing, stuart? >> the difference is, the stock market has reached close to all-time highs recently. pulled back yesterday. the reason for that primarily that ben bernanke is printing up a lot of dollars and some of it is finding its way to the stock market. significantly yesterday when some people suggested maybe bern will print a little less, the stock market came way down. you're right, there is juxtaposition between a weak economy and strong stock market. the difference is ben bernanke. martha: decoupling as we sometimes refer to it. let's take a look at the jobless numbers. every thursday we get those. what did you make of today's report, stuart? >> another confirmation that the economy is weak. 362,000 new claims for jobless benefits. that means a layoff trend remains strong. that means the economy remains weak. we have a static economy, very weak indeed, rising

unemployment and runaway debt. not a good picture for the overall economy as of this morning. martha: thank you, stuart. always good to see you. bill: up 20,000 from a week ago. martha: yeah. bill: you don't like to see that. 360,000 for the week. we're just kicking off right now. the u.s. government issues a new warning for anyone who tries to hack our computer system. this is a big deal. we'll talk about that in a moment. martha: you've heard about this looming automatic spending cuts coming down the pipeline. one week from today they're supposed to kick in. how tough is it really to cut 2 1/2% of the budget? could you pull that off? could you cut 2 1/2% from the hemmer budget? bill: i could, yeah, this afternoon. president obama is talking about his round of golf with tiger wood for the first time now. this is from 2009, this picture. of a the white house took heat for shutting out the white house press corps. did you hear tiger. >> he hit the ball well and got amazing touch. he can certainly chip-and-putt. if he ever spent, after

these four years, if he spend more time playing the game of golf, i'm sure he can get to where he's a pretty good stick. new honey bunches of oats greek yogurt and whole grain. here we go. honey cornflakes and chunks of greek yogurt. i'm tasting both the yogurt and the honey at the same time. i'm like digging this yogurt thing. i feel healthy. new honey bunches of oats greek.

martha: we are just getting some wire reports here. police are on the scene in las vegas. a shooting was reported near the vegas strip. about 4:20 a.m. their time this happened. they're on the scene. we'll keep a close eye on it. we'll bring you the latest on that developing situation as we get more. bill: meantime, there is countdown to changes in the u.s. budget. the president warns that a meat cleaver will clear out key government services and national security but some key republicans calling this sounding of alarms more like chicken little. who is right here? byron york, chief political correspondent, washington examiner. how are you doing this morning. >> doing great, bill. bill: i will read you numbers. tell me if this is true or

hyperbole, fact or just talk out of washington. 70,000 children tropped from head start. is that about to happen. >> look, we don't know exactly what is going to happen. i was talking to douglas holtz-eakin, a former head of the congressional budget office, talking for a piece i'm writing today. he said, look this will be the biggest thing since y2k in a few months we'll look back and say this is what everybody was so upset about? this is no big deal. on the other hand the president and administration are suggesting that the world will end. bill: i've got more. >> okay. bill: 600,000 woman and young children will be cut from a major nutrition program. fda says furloughs result in 2100 fewer inspections of food plants. >> seems unlikely things will happen like that. first thing to remember, they're not going to be actual cuts in federal spending. the rate of increase in federal spending will be lower than it would have been without the sequester, but federal spending, even

discretionary spending that is affected by the sequester will still go up. the problem a lot of federal agencies plan forever-increasing budgets. they make plans for next year and year after and year after, based on assumption they will keep having more money. they will have to throttle back on plans. no doubt some workers will be furloughed, not laid off, furloughed. work one unpaid day per week or once every two weeks, but these really catastrophic effects are unlikely to happen, unless, the administration actually wants them to happen. bill: i see. now we've got this little graphic we can show our viewers. this is the federal budget. okay, annually, $3.6 trillion. in the 85 billion of that pie chart in lighter green what will happen in the sequester. are you saying, byron, are you arguing this is big deal, this is not a big deal or we do not know? >> well it is really not a very big deal at all. look, if you were buying

something and it cost $3600 and somebody said well, i will take $85 off the price, would you think that is steep cut in the price? i think most people would say not. it is unlikely that it has to have these enormous effects. you know, president obama is talking about meat not being inspected, air controllers not being at airports, all sorts of very, very dire effects. warnings of long waits at tsa lines at airports, --. bill: talking about 7,000 tsa workers laid off. >> yes. bill: during the peak of the summer travel season. perhaps as suggestion listening to you the government is too big they need to trim places anyway. that to the side. you mentioned this, bya, because you asked. ruth writes to your point, byron, is it true the sequester cuts are not really cuts at all, but a cut in the rate of increase? if that is true, people need to know that. here's what we did. over a period of ten years, you would go from 13.5% of the increase, and you knock

it down to 5.2% of the increase, which is a, which is a cut on the increase of 8.3%. do i have the math right on that? >> you have it right. it still goes up. the other thing to remember about these sequester cuts, even if they take effect on march 1st, what will happen then is nothing. a lot of federal agencies are required to give workers 30-day notice if they're going to be furloughed or a day a week or day every two weeks. nothing will happen immediately. what there will be in washington, mark my words, is a lot of arguing and trying to change the sequester, even after it goes into effect because there will be this big fight over the continuing resolution to fund the government for the rest of the year. they will try to fold in changes to the sequester in that bill. so there will be a lot of maneuvering and infighting that hasn't even started yet. bill: one more point. at end of march they patch the stuff over again. a four-week delay. perhaps that is what washington does. medicare is not affected.

medicare, social security, postal agencies, none of that is apparently touched. "wall street journal" writes, a lack of details who would be affected and when have complicated the obama administration efforts to mobilize public support for averting the cuts. do you see that? >> what is fascinating this law was passed in 2011 to take effect on january 1st of this year. got pushed off to march 1st. a lot of federal agency heads say they never thought it was going to happen and they haven't really made concrete plans for dealing with it. so a lot of the administration stories what might happen, these worst case scenarios are not actually their actual plans. they're just talking right now. bill: byron, thank you. the cloak, eight, nine days. we have breaking news from martha. martha: we want to get back to this situation in las vegas, police there and peel on the street are calling what is happening a gun battle. they say there are multiple people shot. we'll have more coming back. more reports are coming in

as we speak. stick around for that. that's coming up. some new warnings to china following a wave of cyber attacks coming "fast and furious" really against u.s. companies. the white house is starting to fight back on this. the question for u.s. companies, is it too late? bill: a startling development in the case against jodi arias. what she now says about the night of her boyfriend's murder. >> well, let me ask you this. do you remember stabbing travis alexander? bill: the answer to that question after this.

bill: here we go. breaking news from the las vegas strip just breaking at the moment. police say one person is

dead. there may be more dead, after a running gunbattle in the streets of las vegas here near vegas boulevard and florida meaning go avenue. -- flamingo. police speaking to reporters. it happened 4:20 local time. which would have been two hours. here are police with reporters in las vegas just a moment ago. >> a little before 4:30 this morning there was apparently a rolling gunbattle on the strip. we had two vehicles that were northbound on las vegas boulevard engaged in a shooting. one of those vehicles since left the scene. i don't have a description for you. we're efforting that as we speak. that is under investigation. we're pulling some video. the other vehicle, the driver was struck by gunfire. he is deceased at umc trauma. his passenger, a passenger that was wounded, is also being treated at umc at this time. incidental to that and subsequent to that, as these

vehicles proceeded through the intersection the driver of a mass rought at this, who is the decedent, hit several other vehicles one which was a taxicab. the taxicab subsequently caught on fire and exploded. we have two additional people dead in that taxicab. besides the taxicab, three other vehicles that were struck, i have at least two more people at umc trauma being treated for further injuries at this time. bill: so that was with our affiliate a moment ago. now we hear that three people are dead. now this did not occur, we understand, directly on the famed las vegas strip. but it nearby, perhaps just a little west of there. so we're working on that location. what we understand too, two of the people who were dead, who were killed rather, were inside of a taxi. we're working through the

police there. breaking news out of las vegas here on america's newsroom. martha: meantime we want to bring you this. the obama administration is issuing some new warnings to any government that tries to hack into american companies and steal our trade secrets. the white house warns there could be trade and diplomatic penalties for these violations. this comes days after a virginia-based firm accused of secret chinese military unit of conducting cyber attacks against american companies from this white mysterious building of shanghai. all this smacks of a spy movie or novel but it is heating up. we're joined by general jack keane, retired four-star general, retired vice chief of staff of the army and fox news contributor. good morning, general. >> good morning, martha. nice to see you too. martha: it looks likes biggest threat we're hearing about right now is to u.s. companies. we'll pull up a number of them. they don't mess around here. they're going after the big

names. coca-cola, "new york times", google, twitter, all of our sort of cutting-edge companies are on this list. >> quite frankly, i mean they cut across the political, economic and military intelligence spectrum but their primary focus is clearly intellectual property and trade secrets. and that's what is being revealed here. literally thousands of attacks every single billion day, principally by the people's liberation army and assisted by civilian contractors that work for them and they literally touch thousands of countries every year. it has been going on for years. the business community and intelligence community welcomes the white house stepping up to the plate and starting to finally acknowledge something's got to be done. martha: have we not been doing anything? hard to believe it has been going on for years and we're asleep at the switch. are we? >> we're asleep at the switch in a sense that the defense industry by and

large has almost the fbi in residence every single day because, they have been attacked for years and they have built adequate firewalls to stop this. knot all of it. but a lot of it. the non-defense industry sector, which has significant amount of technology out there, a lot of these companies do not have the proper proprotection. they haven't been able to make the investment. when they sense something happened, they bring in a security firm. they look at it. they identify there has been significant penetration. they identify there has been significant loss. then a company begins to put in the kind of security measures to protect itself is. but anybody operating out there without secure networks is vulnerable to this kind of attack. martha: we talk so much about large governments, small governments, the proper role of government. is this an area where you think the government can and should be doing what they

can to help these companies or should the companies be on their own, figure out their own way to block these hackers? >> i think we have to get really involved here. because this does affect our economic well-being overall. it affects our national security. we have critical infrastructure in this country that is clearly exposed. our electrical power grid is exposed. our aviation system and transportation at large is exposed. and our, much of our financial banking system is also vulnerable. so we've got a real interest in terms of the economic stability of the country, and also as it impacts national security. i think the chinese can not stand publicity of the there is always deniability with this thing. i think what the virginia-based company has done, they have put a spotlight on a chinese and it was a gotcha moment. they identified the pla unit by name. they identified its town, its location. thebuilding it is coming out of and they

actually identified the hacker codes that the people who were doing much of this on the internet. and in that report. so that is very significant f we continue that kind of exposure, the pla which has been very assertive in these last numbers of years, much more so than the government they're working for, they may be pulled back a little bit as a result of this kind of exposure. martha: before i let you go, obviously this trade information is crucial to all these american companies. but one of the biggest fears of cybersecurity that most average americans have is the transit system being taken down, or financial business systems being taken down intentionally. is that something you believe the chinese military is working on as a defense, that they want in their arsenal? >> well, certainly that cyberattack versus exploitation to get technical here for a second. they certainly have the capability to do that. we have the very best capability in the world in terms of that capacity. the russians are probably second and the chinese are a

distant fourth or fifth. but nonetheless they're developing that kind of capability. the problem though if they did something like that we would know it. we certainly have the capability to return in kind. and that in a sense is a checkmate against that. but nonetheless we can not continue to have our critical infrastructure as you describe exposed to the degree it is. and also i think now a lot more businesses would hopeful fully get more involved in cybersecurity than they have in the past. martha: it is fascinating. when i was a kid we talked about mutually assured destruction in nuclear sense. and now you're discussing it in terms of a cyber sense. that sends a lot of about what the fight we're up against in the world today. general keane, good seeing you. >> good seeing you, martha. bill: there is snow, hail even tornados in the month of february. this massive storm walloping so much of you. what you need to know about where that storm is heading next coming up.

martha: this breaking news we're watching right now coming out of las vegas in the heart of the strip. look at the scene where we are learning that three people have been shot in what was called a rolling gunbattle this morning in the heart of the strip in las vegas. two of these people we understand were in a taxicab. a lot more to come on this story. we're on it right here in "america's newsroom.". we're back after this quick break yes she is, yes she is. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. 100% vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings in every little bottle. [ engine turns over ] [ male announcer ] we created the luxury crossover and kept turning the page, writing the next chapter for the rx and lexus. this is the pursuit of perfection.

martha: we're getting more information what is being called a rolling gunbattle

that played out in the early morning hours in las vegas on the strip. this is kind of thing that it looks like they're shooting a movie but it very real. we understand three people were killed in this battle. you see the burned out taxicab we understand the passenger and driver were both shot. the silver car at the top of your screen, we believe it is a mass rought at this. there is car still missing involved in this shooting. so they are searching and of course want to get their hands on that car as well. but a really violent scene played out in the heart of the vegas strip, 4:20 a.m., their time. that is basically middle. afternoon in las vegas. this is quite a scene. we'll get you more information on that. bring it to you as it comes in bill: 25 minutes before the hour. the obama administration

says it is the most transparent in history. but those claims have been met new controversy these days by the very journalists who cover the president. the doug mckelway has a look at this for us. he is live from our bureau in washington. good morning. doug. >> reporter: the press's desire for transparency and white house's desire for effective messaging appeared to reach new heights as they denied press access to president's golf match with tiger woods. abc correspondent ann compton told "politico", the way the president's availability to the press has shrunk in the last two years is a disgrace. the white house denies this president is any less accessible than its predecessors. >> when it comes to solo news conference, president obama has given 35 of those. president bush his immediate predecessor gave 19. >> reporter: president held 21 to date. president george w. bush held 15 in his first term.

she tracks every question the journalists, president obama held brief press availabilities photo-ops one-third as often as george w. bush in his first term. 107. to bish's 355. the critics note the president prefers local tv interviews, staged campaign style events and social media. all venues where hard-hitting questions that are seldom if at all asked. >> important to face follow-up question. put in a tough spot to answer to show the government is effective. >> reporter: technology has increased the administration's options to bypass the white house press corps. >> i think they have chosen transparency up to a point. the and that, the distinction here is on some issues they have decided we'll explain it but then you have to trust us. >> reporter: the president has not done an interview with the "new york times", "the wall street journal", or "the washington post" since 2010. yesterday afternoon he did interviews with eight local tv news stations. bill? bill: doug, thank you.

doug schoen and monica crowley will take this on in a different forum coming up in ten minutes. thank you, doug. martha: well a come charged will canning her ex-boyfriend now saying that she has absolutely no recollection of the afternoon when she stabbed him 27 times. think about that. think about 27 times, right? slitting his throat from side to side, and then shooting him in the head. that is how he died. that is what the autopsy revealed. all of this sort of played out during a fight at his home that happened nearly five years ago. here's jodi arias in really the pinnacle moment of this murder trial. we've watched her on the stand for several days. this is when she got to the heart of what happened at that moment when she did all this. listen. >> well after the gun went off, i thought, crap, now he is really going to be pissed. i didn't know i shot him. i shot a hole in the wall or something and i'm thinking he will really be pissed at

me now. >> do you remember stabbing travis alexander? >> i have no memory of stabbing him. martha: no memory of stabbing. no memory of dragging the body into the shower. all of that seems to have disappeared despite her very good memory for some other parts of the story. jody ari's appearance changed dramatically since the trial started. on the left is picture when she was dating travis alexander. on the right what she looks like now. we have a lis wiehl and tom knipp criminal defense attorney. welcome to you both. obviously the goal here that he was abuse tiff towards here. that she was put in a situation where she had no choice. any evidence of that? >> no, there is no evidence. nobody testified to that. there is no evidence at all. remember just last week she put out he was a pedophile. there is no evidence of that. no evidence on his computer showing any child porn. again and again her story keeps changing. first she said i wasn't even

there. oh, it was two masked man came in. this is more like a fourth story. she didn't remember it one. third story i was there but it was accident. now she says oh, the gun went off. if the gun went off, logically if the gun went off why would you need to slit his throat 27 times? >> she also talks about the knife as part of this murder weapon. we'll listen what she says about that. then we'll get tom's thoughts. >> i have a vague memory of putting the knife in the dishwasher, but i put the knife in the dishwasher before so i don't, i'm pretty sure it was that day. >> do you know where you got the knife from? >> it was in the upstairs. >> okay. are you assuming that or do you remember that? >> i'm assuming that. martha: how do you explain -- she's had such detailed memory for their sexual escapades, her old boyfriends, what she drank

at starbucks on a certain day. this one is gone though. she doesn't remember it. >> the reality is, martha as a defense attorney, a good defense attorney, one of the things you have to be able to do is take the perceived weaknesses in your case and turn them into strengths. i don't know exactly what the defense strategy is this case, i don't know what anyone does, but i suspect we get to closing arguments and we get to summations, they will talk about the 27 knife wounds following gunshots. they will talk about her inconsistencies and her erratic state of mind. saying that was evidence she was under the influence of a temporary psychotic episode the defense will argue was brought on at the hands of the victim. martha: you say that could be their augment for negligent homicide or for a lower charge here? >> absolutely. >> the prosecution has not had a chance to cross-examine. they will starting today. i can not wait for the cross-examination. because that one erratic episode after she shot him to death, and by the way, her grandparents, the week

before, had a gun missing, missing from their house. of the same exact kind of gun, same handgun was used to kill him. she says she doesn't know anything about that. two things, prosecutors -- exactly. look for the cross-examination. look for them to all through different three, now, slash, four stories and other pieces evidence. will she not remember any of that? will she have no comment, no answer. martha: how do you expect this jury will find in this case, tom? >> she make as good witness. and really the defense had no choice but to put her on the stand because lis pointed out there really wasn't any corroborating evidence. so she has to try to convince the jury. i don't know what the makeup of the jury is. she presents pretty well. they dressed her up nicely with glasses and giving her demure look. if she can convince one or two of the jurors she was a victim, possibly looking at a conviction for negligent homicide. >> i have to disagree. i don't think she presents well as a witness. she looks cold, calculatings,

frankly coached. >> i like the glasses though. >> sure. good defense lawyer. martha: we'll see what happens. thanks so much, tom and lis. great to see you guys. bill: we're getting more information on what is happening on the vegas strip. we're told it us away from the heart of las vegas. we're told smack dab in the middle, maybe in front of the famous bellagio. we have a live reporter on the scene. president obama breaking his silence on the round of golf with tiger woods. but why could this be part of something bigger? we'll debate that moments away. martha: your tax dollars not at work. the green auto company that you helped pay for that could be in the hands of the chinese soon. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. your soups are so awesomely delicious my husband and i can't stop eating 'em! what's...that... on your head?

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bill: there is breaking news in the heart of las vegas

strip. if you know that city you know the casinos, bally's, and the bellagio. it appears right at the intersection of las vegas boulevard and flamingo that taxt out, and shots were fired about four hours ago, leaving at least three people dead. we're working through the story along with dave lawrence on the scene in las vegas, kvvu. dave, what are you hearing from police, what happened, who was involved, do we know? >> reporter: well, at this point the suspect, one of the suspect vehicles doing some of the firing along the vegas strip apparently did get away from this scene. they have not released any suspect information from the vehicle or who may have been firing. let me get out of the way. i can show you the vegas strip. this is where three people died this morning and at least three others up injured and headed to the hospital. las vegas metro describes this as a rolling gunbattle along the vegas strip. they believe suspects

involved in this shootout ran through a red light at las vegas boulevard and flamingo which led to five cars getting involved in an accident. one cab was involved in this as well. unfortunately is the cab where the cab driver and one passenger inside that car did die. that car is completely burned out right in front of bill's gambling hall, down from the flamingo casino and down from bally's and the bellagio. three people dead on the vegas strip after a shootout. police say they do not have a suspect vehicle. we talked to one witness who tried to pull one man out and resuscitate him. he said it did not look good. that man may have been one of the deceased here. he did try to help and he was bloody. certainly a akotick scene here in las vegas. back to you. martha: give us any indication about the third car the police said they are still looking for, what the status is of that? and is anybody hinting or suggesting whether or not this was, whether it was a hit or whether these people

in the taxicab got cause in the cross fire? any suggestion about that yet? >> reporter: still too early to tell. mote throw here in las vegas is investigating. this is world famous intersection. you can bit there is lot of surveillance video as the gunbattle happened on the strip. it may shed light on the description of vehicles well. it is too early to tell why the shootout happened. we may be able to find out a lot from surveillance video. bill: dave, one more thing. you say at least one gunman got away, is that right? >> reporter: yes, absolutely. las vegas metro has not released any information about the car or the people inside of that vehicle. bill: dave, we'll be in touch with you and others. kvvu, las vegas helping out with that. dave lawrence, breaking news as they said at the heart of the intersection. that is perhaps one of the best known of the world. you think about times square and you think about that place in las vegas. martha: the vegas strip.

we'll get you more on that as we get it this morning. there are new details in the search for the next leader of the catholic church. the growing interest in the possibility of an american pope. we will explain. i'm lorenzo. i work for 47 different companies. well, technically i work for one. that company, the united states postal service®, works for thousands of home businesses. because at usps.com®, you can pay, print and have your packages picked up for free. i can even drop off free boxes. i wear a lot of hats. well, technically i wear one. the u.s. postal service®, no business too small.

bill: president obama finally talking about his round with tiger woods days after shutting out reporters that cover him. here he is with kgo television. san francisco. >> he plays a different game than i do. he's on another planet. >> is he more nervous because he is playing with you or are you more nervous because you're playing with tiger woods? >> i don't think either of us is nervous. he knew i was not a big threat to his world ranking. i knew i better keep my day job. bill: the president has been

giving interviews with local tv stations in recent days hammering the republicans because of sequester. doug schoen, monica crowley, both are fox news contributors. i chuckle. it was a good comment. he is on a different planet. i can't come close to his game. monica, is the best way to handle it? >> you controversy over the fact he spent the weekend playing golf with tiger woods and white house press corps was not allowed any access to him? yeah, i suppose so. you know what? it is nice that the president had a good time playing with tiger woods. i think any golfer from novice to expert would love a round with tiger woods. it would be nice if the president found time to answer questions say about benghazi, "fast & furious", debt, spending jobs, growth the really serious issues. bill: you say this makes him look bad? >> it being looks like he having a jolly good time. that is all nice. this country is going through grave and serious

issues and it would be nice if he answered these questions. bill: we heard that a lot from the right. doug, is the right about this. >> i think the right is correct in the sense that given the challenges of things like sequester, it's a little disturbing that the president is limiting his access to local media who asks him questions about golf with tiger woods. however, interesting it may be. but there really are important questions we have to deal with. now bottom line, bill, this is successful media manipulation by the white house, make no mistake. when i worked for bill clinton, we did the same thing. we wanted to bypass the national media. bill: this is local television. you did not have google hankouts, facebook online town hall meetings. seems like that is their strategy lately, to go around the press corps in washington and another example here in san francisco. but, doug, there are stories being written about the dangers of overconfidence. when you win a second term and you begin that second

term. do you see that? >> well, i've seen the stories. his great asset, bluntly and i think monica might even agree with my, are the republicans. the "usa today poll" numbers, pew has them at record low of 22% favorable. in the absence of real opposition the account is able to get away with this. he knows the media is the real opposition. so he is hiding out as much as he can, bypassing them, going directly to the american people, using social media, the web and local t. have. bill: monica? >> that is one of the great ironies doug says, he thinks the media is the enemy in some way. this media has been such a lapdog press for this president is incredible. every president get as siege mentality in the white house. that generally kicks in in the second term where they get very insular and insulated and they really don't want to talk to the press. bill: i tell you what. he is clever though. the return trip from florida, he met off the record with white house reporters for ten minutes on board the

plane. you know what that does? takes the heat off the issue. takes the heat off reporters. guys, wish we had more time. we have breaking news from vegas to get too. we'll talk to you real soon. martha? martha: this breaking news on new terror arrests, potentially breaking up the a plot what could be one. worst terrorist attacks in eight years. we have the latest on that this morning. bill: plus one of the worst winner storms the u.s. has seen in years. already proving deadly. where the worst is yet to come. we're whack on that. -- back on that. >> breaking news out of sin city. a gunbattle erupts in the heart of the vying gas strip and the suv cops are searching for. we'll be right back with that. >> in the intersection as i said. the two vehicles that seemed to be involved in this rolling gunbattle. perations? it's not working!

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martha: we have several breaking news stories we're on top of right now. a rolling gunbattle is what police on the ground call this, playing out in the early morning hours in the

heart of the vegas strip. three people were killed in this. the taxicab is what you see at the bottom of the screen. that is the most burnt out vehicle. two people were killed in that. what we're trying to figure out whether they were caught in the cross fire between the maserati you see to the north of that and the suv which is a huge mystery right now. that is the car that got away with the gunman in it. the police in vegas are hoping to be hot on the trail of that car as soon as possible. more details on that as we get them. bill: more breaking news. south africa now. this case has gotten weird already. moments ago we're told a new lead investigator has been appointed in the oscar pistorius murder case. it was just yesterday when the former lead investigator, it was revealed, that he right now could face trial on suspected murder of seven people in south africa. this only a day after that man, former lead investigator, gave his testimony before the judge in this case.

he is now off the case. and a new investigator has been appointed. we'll tell you the significance of that and how that could affect this trial in a moment. martha: we've also got this alert this morning. a powerful and deadly winter storm is gaining strength we understand as it moches across the midwest right now. millions of people are bracing for what some are calling the worst winter storm in two years. we've had some doozies in the past year. so this one looks like it could be a very big one. winter warnings and advisories have been issued from new mexico all the way to virginia. the storm is being blamed already for at least one death in its path. brand new hour, lots going on this thursday morning in "america's newsroom." glad that you are with us this morning. i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning as well. a foot of snow is expected in parts of kansas and nebraska. dangerous conditions on the roads already. have a listen here. >> travel is important but your life is more important. you can arrive a day later

and deal with it because, just puts, you know, yourself at risk if you're out there driving. it puts responders at risk. our times to respond to you are probably increased fourfold. martha: we've got team fox coverage on this. janice dean is in our weather center following the latest, claudia cowan is in the thick of the white stuff in kansas city and we standard with you this morning, claudia. >> good morning, martha. we expected seminole to begin overnight. it really just started a few hours ago. as you can tell it is coming down hard, already five inches in some places. this is how it will look all day long with forecasters calling up for 14 inches of snow snow we have this storm moves out of here tomorrow morning. residents in kansas city are bracing for the blizzard like conditions that pummeled the state of kansas overnight. certainly very hard to drive on these icy roads.

already we had a couple of noninjury accidents and spinnouts here in kansas city this morning making a mess of the thursday morning commute. the airport in kansas city canceled hundreds of flights. it is a snow day for all public schools and day off for lawmakers in kansas. they announced no legislative business on account of this storm. officials are telling folks look, if you don't have to be outside today, stay indoors because it is cold. it is miserable and it's just going to continue and certainly there is that risk of danger out on the roadways. martha? martha: claudia, thank you very much. we'll be watching that one throughout the day. bill: where she is they're getting hammered right now. the midwest is not the only part of the country getting hit. arizona having a wild combination of winter weather. intense hail in phoenix. rare dessert snowfall in southern arizona. they hardly ever see that. organizers had to cancel the first round of play in a professional golf tournament. where does the storm go now?

janice dean in the live in the severe weather center. >> the midwest is getting the brunt of the storm as you see on the radar. we could see ice, half an inch of ice on the roads. for power lines and trees that could be unbelievably dangerous. we have freezing rain and ice storm warnings for parts of arkansas up through missouri. we have a severe weather side of the storm where we could see tornados. all sorts of weather to talk let's talk about the snow where claudia cowan is, that is our "bulls-eye" on one of the computer models we see 18 to 24 inches. hopefully, claudia, you have your shovel-ready at this point. six to 12 in light blue, omaha, nebraska, chicago you haven't seen this amount of snow this season. could get three to five inches. in the pink we see potential of ice. not only arkansas and missouri but across the ohio river valley as well. that could be very dangerous. we could see six to 12 in

some cases along the kansas nebraska border, two feet of storm. you see the ice storm across portions of arkansas. that is where they're seeing ice. the warm side of this storm, the possibility fortornados across texas, louisiana, mississippi up towards arkansas. if i could just make note some of this moisture will make its way offshore, bill and martha, we could have ourselves another nor'easter pounding boston with a foot of snow this weekend. bill: just had one. >> yep. it's possible. it's been, this has been a long winter. bill: sure has. aren't they all? thank you, janice. talk to you soon. >> thank you. bill: in our weather center. martha: new violence to report this morning in war-torn syria. we're getting word of a government airstrike on a hospital in a rebel field. also learning of a deadly car bombing that happened in damascus. that just coming through moments ago. that was targeting the headquarters of syria's ruling party. the blast we are learning,

i've seen numbers up to 50 dead in this. 35 people, you know the low side of that report. those numbers of course will be coming in throughout the afternoon. more than 200 people were injured in this situation. what a, what a year it has been for people in syria and in damascus in particular and aleppo. most of the victims in this case were civilians according to these early reports. and some of them once again sadly were children. all right, let's swing our attention now to london where there are some very big developments in a major terror investigation that's going on there. a jury has convicted three muslim men of plotting attacks intending to be even more deadly than what we saw play out in the heart of london back in 2005. those bombings, the transit bombings, killed 52 people. amy kellogg is live in london with the latest on this morning. good morning, amy. >> reporter: hi, martha. these young men had all

grown up in this country but they had come to despise it. martha, they were so cynical they actually pretended to be raising money for a muslim charity when in fact they were gathering fund for their plot to blow up eight knapsack bombs and cause as much carnage as possible. the three men were from birmingham and were arrested in 2011 in a joint mi5-west midlands counterterrorism operation. they said their attack would be another 9/11, taking revenge for quote, everything. and one of them had criticized the july 7th bombers here for not killing enough people, for not putting enough nails in their comes. two of three of the group had gone to tribal areas of pakistan for terrorist training and fund-raising activities. they were said to followers of the late u.s. born radical al qaeda cleric, anwar al-awlaki and at least some had his sermons apparently on their nokia phones. they had spoken about supplementing their bombs with assault rifle attacks and poisons. and according to court

document, they had experimented with bomb-making. one was a trained chemist. and someone i know, who knew that man actually told me that he did well in the system here in the u.k., even ran his own pharmacy. but something went wrong with him psychologically. now police swooped in and arrested the group in the early days of their scheme. they had not even yet identified their targets. six others in their pact pleaded guilty to being part of the plot, martha. police were saying this was the biggest, most significant plot to be foiled since the liquid bomb plot in 2006 which of course terrorists hoped to blow up transatlantic planes with bombs, created from liquids carried on airplanes. that is of course why we now, wherever we are in the world need to put all of our liquids into plastic bags when we carry them on planes. martha: thank goodness, they were stopped in their tracks this time. amy kellogg, thank you very much, from london. bill: back to breaking news from las vegas, getting more information by the moment. that is what is leftover

from the scene around flamingo road and las vegas boulevard, in the heart of the vegas strip. we're told three people are dead. a rolling gunbattle according to police. here is an eyewitness to what happened at 4:20 in the morning vegas time. >> i heard a single gunshot, what sounded like a gunshot, being retired law enforcement officer, i know what a gunshot is. there was a couple second delay. then i heard a series of gunn shots, short delay. a loud boom or second or so less. after that i heard two other booms. and, i waited a little bit. and i then i looked out my window and i could see one vehicle down here on the corner, the intersection, totally engulfed in flames. bill: remember, this was, this was the dark of night at 4:20 in the morning.

this is what we believe to be area of concern. for the millions of touristses that las vegas gets every year, you will recognize these names at the heart of the one of the most recognized intersections in the world. this area here would be caesar's palace, all right? across the road to the northeast would be flamingos. down at bottom, right-hand corner, would be bally's. at the giant waterfall in front would be the bellagio. this is a las vegas boulevard cuts north and south. right in the middle of all of this, we believe it to be the northeastern section of that intersection where you see that burned out car and those other two vehicles sitting by the side there. at least three dead in the heart of the vegas strip at 4:20 in the morning. martha has more on this now. martha: bill, thank you. let's get on the phone now

with officer jose hernandez, who is the public information officer for las vegas metropolitan police department. officer, good morning. things are always lively in las vegas but you guys have had quite a day so far. >> we have, good morning, how are you? martha: i'm doing just fine. tell me what you know about this situation so far. >> well, right now we have the incident occurred approximately 4:20 this morning. there are reports of a vehicle, two vehicles northbound on las vegas boulevard were at flamingo when the occupants of a black range rover sport fired into a second vehicle, that being a maserati, striking the passenger and the driver. this caused the maserati to go out of control. it proceeds to the intersection, striking a cab and four other vehicles. the cab subsequently catches on fire, trapping the driver and the passenger in the cab. three others were

transported for injuries involved in the other collisions. at this time we have three confirmed deceased and one wounded. two of those being the cab driver and the passenger and the other being the driver of the maserati. currently we are asking for the public's assistance. we're looking for a black range rover sport, described as having large black rims. it has some sort of dealership advertisement plate, and believed to be occupied by a black males. please keep in mind this is an armed and dangerous vehicle. anyone with information is urged to call the las vegas metropolitan police department. martha: officer, so, from everything you're telling me, it appears that the people in the taxicab are the most tragic loss in this situation. does not appear that that car, that vehicle had any

involvement. it sounds like it was a shootout between the maserati and the suv that you described. is that your understanding at this point? >> at this point that is what we understand. very tragic. the cab driver, the cab itself unrelated and, just like all the other vehicles and other people that are out here coming to visit were just driving on las vegas boulevard when it was struck. martha: what a tragedy for those people and the suv is very much on your radar right now. anyone who has any information should call the las vegas police department. officer, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. martha: we'll be right back with much more on this story in "america's newsroom" right after this jenna shared her recipe with sharon,

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martha: well, new outrage this morning coming from republican senators after reports that a chinese firm is actually in a bidding war for yet another of our troubled u.s. green energy companies.

fisker automotive is the company. they are backed by u.s. taxpayers to the tune of $521 billion. we've been down this road before, right? it is latest in green energy investments made by the obama administration and this one is also struggling to stay afloat. meanwhile china holds $1.2 trillion in u.s. debt total, right? we're already on the hook for that amount in china. joined by rich lowery, editor of "national review" and fox news contributor. good morning, rich. >> hi, martha. martha: we asked to get a list of companies that have gone under or that have had to be sold because they were not making a success here on u.s. taxpayer money. it's a long one. beacon power, abound solar, 123 systems, solyndra which started the ball rolling. what do you make of this one? >> i don't have a problem with foreign investment in this country as a general matter. it is a good thing. but it is galling to have the taxpayer subsidizing companies that fail and get bought at fire-sale prices

by the chinese. this happened with several green energy companies including battery supplier a 123 for fisker cars. the government is good at writing checks and not good as a venture cap tallist and shouldn't try to be one. martha: there is no indication that that course is changing. the president talked in the state of the union about the important of investment in green energy and future green energy ventures for the company. the list could get longer, does it not? >> he has a idealogical commitment to this. he often cites abraham lincoln and describes how lincoln supported subsidizing railroads and canals which was true, but in the 1840s and 1850s there was really no capital market to speak of in this country. if you want to do any big venture, government had to be involved. that is not the case now. we have extremely active capital markets. in fact fisker raised more than a billion dollars on its own in private money.

in terms of the amount of money raised it was one of the top startups in the country. it didn't need government support. there are lots of people out there thought this was a viable business model. good for them. let them to put their own money at stake. no reason the u.s. government should put everyone else's money at stake. martha: that is the bigger issue. how good is the u.s. government being research analyst? what kind of information do they come up with that directs them toward the right companies? they would say, rich, in any large pool of investment you will have some things that don't work out. it is the ones that do work out you put your heart and soul into and those are your successes and in the end they outweigh the weak ones. is that the case though? >> well the difference is, you're not putting your own money up. you're putting everyone else's money up. the way i look at this, if it is a going concern and really viable it will find private investors. eventually we'll figure it out. eventually we'll all have cars that get 150 miles per

gallon and appealing to drive and all the rest of it. when that is figured out it will be the private market that does it. government is just not good as a venture-capitalist. martha: interesting, because i think of nasa as a final thought here which the government made a lot of investment in. now the administration, the obama administration wants more private money going to space exploration, but they seem to have the opposite take on green energy. we'll see how it goes. rich, thank you. >> thanks so much, martha. bill: so there is another hurdle for justice in in the deadly benghazi terror attack. a second middle east nation now denying access to the only suspect in custody more than five months after four americans were killed. martha: and new images of a thrilling first in space exploration speaking of that. what this dust may reveal about the possibility of life beyond earth, bill hemmer. somebody's out there. ♪ .

martha: we are back and live on the scene of a gruesome shootout that played out in the early morning hours of las vegas this morning. what you see there is the burnt out taxicab on the lower part of your screen where tragically sound like two people who had no involvement in this according to the policeman i spoke with a few moments ago lost their lives. also dead one person who was in that maserati that you see on the upper part of the screen, the black car. so three confirmed dead so far in this. there is an suv, a range rover, as we just reported to you moments ago, that is out there somewhere that was also involved in this

shooting. we were told that they are in hot pursuit, not in hot pursuit, they would like to be in hot pursuit of that range rover. it is a range rover sport, according to the public information officer, two black men in this car they're searching for in las vegas. they're no doubt checking every bit of surveillance tape they can find from the famous, famous intersection on the heart of the vegas strip. this is clearly something that woke everybody up in a terrible way this morning. we have a little bit of sound from a reporter on the scene there we want to play for you to bring more into this story. >> the fire, the explosion. so i ran over and helped the guy in the maserati out of the car. and that was that. >> how did you get him out of the car and what did you notice right away? >> i checked his pulse. he still had a pulse. i ripped the divider or console out and me and somebody else pulled him out. the cops came and helped pull him to the curb.

>> you gave him cpr. describe pulling him out of the car and trying to resuscitate him. >> he had a pulse. we tried to resuscitate him until the ambulance came. once they came they took over. >> what happened after that? >> i was just watching and you know, they were trying to keep everybody clear from the car that was on fire. there were two cars on fire. martha: two cars on fire he said. let me explain what you were looking at there, because it was a shot of the man's arm. he did not want his face to be on camera, that eyewitness to this crime. questions there. all right the blood you see on the side of his shirt, he says is from the man that he pulled out of that maserati. he still had a pulse when he pulled him out. the other person in the maserati was killed in that accident. three people killed. that man was a witness to the scene and helped pull one of them out of the car. more coming up as we cover a breaking news story this morning out of las vegas. bill: still active too, looking for the gunman apparently driving a range rover, said to be armed and dangerous.

updates on that. new developments in the effort to track down terrorists, who murdered four americans in benghazi. are u.s. investigators denied access to the high-profile suspect by yet another country again? an update on that. martha: plus a stunning new twist in the murder case involving "the blade runner" oscar pistorius. there is now a new investigator that has been brought into this case and this comes after we learn that the former investigator was in trouble himself, big trouble. what is going on with this case? we'll be right back. >> i think oscar were slightly more relaxed. i saw him, sketching him every day. he was a little more relaxed especially in the afternoon session. so hopefully all goes well. we have to remind ourself this is only bail application. just early days. here we go. honey cornflakes and chunks of greek yogurt.

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martha: new road blocks now in the investigation on the terrorist attack in benghazi. egypt has denied american investigators access to the only suspect in custody. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge joins us live with more on this. catherine, once again another hold up on this suspect. >> fox news has hraoefrpbd that the u.s. has been denied direct access to the suspect held in egyptian custody since the end of last year. direct access simply means in this case that u.s. interrogators have not been able to sit in the same room with the suspect to ask their own

questions. mohammed skwrarbg skwr-rbg amal is suspected of establishing training camps in eastern libya where people involved in the 9/11 attack were able to train. he is not suspected of taking part in the attack that left four americans including ambassador dead. in january two knee january authorities released al harsi citing a lack of evidence. f.b.i. acts got access to him after the personal intervention of republican senator lindsey graham. neither the cia or the f.b.i. provided comment to fox on this latest case. martha: are we getting any more information from this suspect? >> officials who are not authorized to comment on the record told fox news that egyptian authorities have been providing to u.s. authorities useful information from their own investigation of abu aeamed.

this does not mean a total lack of information from the suspect. in recent confirmation hearings the president's nominee for the cia was pressed about the two admonition case and the blocks the f.b.i. had faced. >> we have someone who was a suspect in the potential attack -- in the attack on benghazi. they didn't give us access to him and we don't have any information from him. >> we work with our partner across the board and when they are able to detain individuals according to their laws we work to see if we can have the ability to ask them questions, sometimes inch eastbound directly and sometimes directly eufrpblgts brennan said it was, quote, to back up military interrogations. these tphao*eub debriefings and interrogations, this is significant by our foreign partners critics of the administration read this as evidence that the cia is effectively out of the interrogation business all

together. martha: thank you very much. catherine herridge. bill: fox news alert now because there is a new lead investigators now just assigned to the bizarre murder case involving a famous disabled olympian known as "blade runner." miss r-oscar pistorius accusinged of willing his girlfriend, reeca steemkamp. the top prosecutors relieved from the case because he is facing possible murder charges himself. it's just bizarre, have you a lead investigators who made his case before the judge just yesterday and now we find out these facing seven attempted furnished charges. i've got a flurry of questions. how does this happen, or why do you not put a different investigator on the case to begin with? >> not knowing all the facts behind it it could have been as simple as, first of all he's still on-duty, he wasn't

suspended because these charges and allegation have been out there for a while. he's been on-duty. perhaps it's his rotation. perhaps waoes the one tha he showed up because he was taking the lead on this case. as more light is drawn upon it thief restabgte retracted and taken him off of the case. bill: does this affect the case now that you have a new investigators assigned. >> this case will be tried in front of a judge. this is not a jury trial in south africa. bill: single man. >> single man. >> as opposed to in the past we are concerned about how this may taint the jury pool, a perception of perhaps some collusion or somebody who is not credible n this case yo. in this case you real i have to worry about the judge, however, i think right now we're looking at a case where many times detectives, for whatever reason pass away, or are incompetent or

in capable to testify in cases as they come down through their process. i think by changing out and bringing in a lead detective or lead person, they said the top cop at this point isn't going to have a dramatic effect. bill: at the moment you're okay with it. >> i'm okay with it. bill: let's see what kind of new layers peel off this onion. a lot of times what defense attorneys will do, they'll that i can the case and turn it on the police, and they'll put them on trial. >> they always do, especially if there's evidence that points negatively towards their person. they going to make a case where they are going to try to say, well it was in some way collusion, or tainted or he didn't do a proper job, because he was distracted or otherwise not competent. i think at this point there is no problem with him making the change. i think the facts -- the two case are unrelated, and so they can kind of draw a line to say, listen that didn't affect the way that he behaved as lead investigator during the first few hours of this investigation. as you said, time will tell and this case is not over yet. bill: this is one of the most

well-known people in the entire country of south africa. he's a multi-millionaire. he's got a lot on the line. do you smell a rat? >> i don't smell a rat, but i don't think what has been put forward, this is my view, i don't think what's been put forward as being a defense is one that ultimately will come out as the reasons behind. bill: thank you, bill. bail daly with us here in new york. 20 minutes before the hour now. martha. martha: here is one of the big questions right now in the world, who will be the next pope? speculation is now growing throughout the catholic church as the vatican prepares to select the new pope. is anyone from the united states, perhaps, really seriously in the running this time? bill: also, we're hearing, martha, from the shooting on the sunset strip, police looking for a black range rover. make that the vegas strip in the heart of las vegas, an update from the scene in a moment on that. martha: a question for you bill,

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bill: new information now, what happened there in the heart of the las vegas strip overnight, 3:20 in the morning. dave lawrence is with fox las vegas kvvu, and dave what are you hearing now from police? >> well, bill they've kind of updated their story. they just briefed us a few moments ago and they say now they don't believe it was a rolling gun battle at all, they believe the shots were coming from a black suv and they were targeting apparently this maserati, and that driver did

die at the scene, and two others dead as a result of a traffic accident here at las vegas boulevard and flamingo. let me get out of the way and we'll tell you about the vehicle they are on the hunt nor, a brown range rover sport with dark tinted windows and large black rims. the most interesting and kind of district tiff marker on this car, it apparently has car dealer plates, and they are not from nevada. so that is what las vegas metro is now on the hunt for for this vehicle to see if they can find this thing and put more closure on this situation. but, again, three dead and at least three others sent to the hospital after what was originally reported as a rolling bun battle. now they say it may have been a maserati car getted from the black suv. it's going to be a long day along the las vegas strip. i talked with one sergeant who said they will be investigating and have this intersection shut down until sundown. bill: there is one question on this amount the moment.

there was a survivor pulled from the maserati, that is my understanding. >> reporter: yes. bill: do we know whether or not thoeupbs side this black range rover, now considered armed and dangerous and the people inside the maserati knew one another? >> reporter: we are not sure if they knew each other, and we do apparently have one survivor from the maserati and do not know their current condition. they are investigating all kinds of witnesses who were here on the vegas strip even at 4:20 in the morning you'll find a lot of people on the vegas people on thstrip out and about. they have drivers in the area who may have seen something. as i mentioned earlier with you guys there is of course a lot of surveillance video along the las vegas strip all up and down it. police tell us they are looking at a lot of those tapes to see if they can get a better description of the black suv and try to find the suspect. yes, definitely considered armed and dangerous. bill: dave, thank you. good reporting out there.

fox in vague as out there. martha: there is growing interest and discussion in the italian newspapers lately that there is a possibility of an american successor to pope benedict the xvi. he will begin his last week as leader of the catholic church. the u.s. will have an unprecedented voice actually in the election of a new pope because the u.s. is sending eleven cardinals as electors to the papal conclave and they must be all under the able of 80 to be voting. that makes them second only to the italian contingent, the second largest group of electors are coming from america which is unprecedented. i am joined by father frank pravone, the national director of priests for life. nice to have you here today. >> good to see you today. martha: what do you think of this. cardinal dolan comes up and

cardinal o'malley pointing to him from boston as well as a possibility. how likely do you think that is? >> well, you know, anything is possible. i think it's considered more likely than it has been in the past. but of course between now and the election there is going to be a lot of speculation. you'll see various lists being generated of possible names, and who is on those lists depend on what perspective one is taking as to what is an important consideration. you have 117 cardinals voting, i guess that means there will be at least 200 different per spebt teufs of wha perspectives of what is important, what should we consider most. the interesting thing about papal elections is there are no nominees, there are no primaries. it's just as likely that it would be someone that didn't appear on any of the lists at all. it is a vicinitying thing to see, as you just mention, how some of these american names are coming up, and as i say anything is possible. martha: you touched on it, and

that is -- the question is what is the most important thing that the conclave believes we need to have in the next pope? i know that the rising trend of secularism in the world is of great concern to the catholic church and that may be something that is focused on. there is also sort of the issue that is asleeper, and perhaps should not be, and that is persecution against christians all around the world, the sort of global plight of christiana taoefplt i read recently that a hundred thousand christians have been killed every year in the name of the faith for the last ten years. i think that is sort of an unreported, under reported story. >> it's a major issue. what we have to keep in mind is that the car cardinals come together with the good of the church as their primary consideration. the good of the church as they see it, as they know it, as pastors themselves, and many of them working of course here in rome, they know a lot of things

that don't necessarily get into public circulation, but that will weigh heavily in their own minds and hearts. so we may see some of these issues that are, frankly, under reported, and that you just eluded to as being very heavy on the mind of these cardinals as priorities. i would say that all of our viewers who are believers, they are the most important thing to do between now and the actual election is to pray for god's guidance on these cardinals, and we at priests for life have started such a world-wide prayer campaign. it's one of the most important things that people will do, as well as, you know, speculating and look at what the key signs might be about who it will be. martha: it's going to be an interesting discussion over the weeks to come. father, always a pleasure to speak with you. thank you very much. bill: there is something crossing on the wire, martha, a week from today on thursday of next week the pope will leave the vatican by helicopter.

i don't know what time of day that will happen but that will be an interesting image. martha: he's going right outside of rome, a typical summer vacation spot for the pope. he's exelected to be in in the early days after he leaves the vatican. one more week. bill: new material now from the final front tear. nasa breaking fresh grounded on mars, uncovering clues that may finally tell us if life could have existed on the red planet. wait until you see this from nasa.

bill: they are breaking new ground on the final frontier. for the first time an unmanned rover has drilled into martian rock and collected a sample. nasa's curiosity now beaming these images back to mother

earth. tarek malek is with us this morning. think the work of the curiosity rover. they are sending directions from planet earth all the way out to mars and tell this thing what to do. what did they find. >> the rover had a drill at the end of its robotic arm. it drilled into the rock, collected the dust from inside and now it's going to eat this dust in it's also laboratory to find out exactly what is inside it. it was really surprising. the rock is gray not red, which is what you would not expect on the red planet. bill: inside the rock. >> it's gray and not red. bill: the planet is red according to our eye. it has a laboratory on board curiosity in. >> exactly it has ten instruments on this rover. it's the size of a car. $2.5billion. its the biggest rover ever sent to the red planet to another planet. it's going to basically sample this rock dust, it's going to put it through a chemical

analysis, say what's inside it, was there ever water inside, could conditions have been right for life now or in the past on mars? that's what they are looking to find out. bill: they have what a tablespoon of rock powder. >> yes. bill: hour going to derive, what the history of mars from that single tablespoon? >> the rover can do this many times. this is the first one. they'll see how it goes and they hope to seep sampling more from this site, more from elsewhere on mars to look nor what conditions were like in the past. bill: someone said it's like unlocking a time capsule. that's pretty right, huh? >> it is. this region of mars, this huge crater has been untouched by anything but time for millions and billions of years. all they have to do is crack open these rocks to see how they formed in the past, and just digging beneath the surface a little bit is uncovering a whole new world.

bill: this is just the beginning of this particular experiment. it could last for up to a year, two years? >> exactly. bill: even further of that? >> the rover is powered by a nuclear power source. its not dependent on the sun or anything. it could last two years, that's the initial mission. the power source could mean much more than that. the current rovers that are solar powered now have been going on there for a decade. bill: you guys are jacked up about this. aren't you? >> it's an exciting mission. bill: thanks. when there are more developments we'll bring you back. martha. martha: tens of millions of americans are in the path of a massive storm. of it is still february, folks and that's no surprise to people in the middle of the country right now where they have got even several inches of snow. we are hearing that this storm could also bring tornadoes with it. we are going to have the latest on its track and what you need to know. bill and i will be right back.

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